LEARNING from a coach who helped the Australian Diamonds - it was an opportunity that seven of Bathurst's most talented young netballers embraced this week.
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Taliyaha Chatfield, Hope Coombes, Bronte Cullen-Ward, Sarah Dickerson, Samantha Hanrahan, Abigail Williams and Laura Scott were given that opportunity thanks to their involvement in the Western Region Academy of Sport's netball program.
Coombes is a third year member of the squad and will be looking to build on what she has already achieved, including being named the WRAS netballer of the month last July.
After being sidelined for much of last season due to COVID-19 restrictions, the WRAS netball program is back in 2021.
The 28-member squad, including four training partners of which one is Scott, assembled for the first time last weekend at Bathurst Indoor Stadium.
There they participated in a number of activities encouraging bonding, communication and relationship building with the Academy of Sport Speed Australia running the squad through some speed and agility lessons as well.
But on Wednesday it got even better in a training session at Wellington. It was conducted by former Sydney Swifts head coach and former assistant coach of the Aussie Diamonds, Lisa Beehag.
The Bathurst talents and their fellow squad members worked on a range of fundamental skills including footwork, passing and catching, ball movement under Beehag's guidance, as well as a number of team drills that build to game-like scenarios.
The academy's netball program plays a vital role in the Netball NSW Athlete Pathway by identifying, monitoring and developing the skills of young netballers. The program will consist of on court skills training, fitness and athlete education, as per the Netball Australia Develop a Diamond program.
The squad will come together regularly over the coming months at various locations across the Central West and train under the guidance of head coach Linda McLeod.
In April, the squad will represent the WRAS at the 2021 Your Local Club Academy Games at Maitland Basketball Stadium and later in the year will travel to Orange for the Greater Bank Academy Challenge.
In that tournament they will compete against 10 other Regional Academies of Sport from across the state.
The squad members will also represent their respective netball associations at the NSW State Titles in June to be held in Western Sydney.
Greater Bank will also continue its association with the WRAS netball program in 2021.
